Bianca Güttner

 

Who are you and what do you do? With whom are you collaborating (Partner)?

Hi, I’m Bianca, a PhD student in computer science at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Dresden, enrolled at TU Dresden. My Software Campus partner is Zeiss. Our research group focuses on implementing the state of the art in computer science – especially new developments in Artificial Intelligence – into surgical cancer therapy. My PhD project revolves around generating training data for liver navigation facilitated by Deep Learning algorithms.

Since when are You a participant at Software Campus what do you expect from Software Campus?

My project started in 2024, and since 2023 I’ve been a participant. The Software Campus allows me to collaborate with some bright minds to tackle my idea. Additionally, it provides support for conducting experiments and gathering input from my partners, which will hopefully bring the project result closer to something applicable.

What is your IT-Project about – core topic – and how could it be used in the long run?

My project is about dynamically adapting the simulation mesh in the presence of topology changes, such as interactions with surgical instruments. With this, we aim to extend the training data for the navigation neural network by including scenarios where the organ has been cut and subsequently been moved or deformed. A challenge here is the trade-off between scale and accuracy in remeshing, which lies between problems in computer graphics and biomechanics. The result could potentially also be interesting for reinforcement learning applications in robotics.

What is important to you in your work?

Sharing knowledge. Two of the most exciting aspects of research for me are transparency and collaboration. This way, fewer resources are spent towards duplicating work and everyone gets to build on or further advance new developments. To that end, it is planned to openly share the project results.

Which app/technical invention is more than essential to you?

Broadly defined, I’d have to say water pumps, light, heating – everything that makes life so comfortable. More specifically, noise-cancelling headphones. While that may sound a bit antisocial, they help you maintain your personal space and, more importantly, to have a clear thought in noisy modern cities.

Besides your job and Software Campus, what makes your heart beat faster?

Dancing! There’s something we call the “ten dance devils” that runs in the women of my family, and I’ve always danced in one way or another. For the past five years, I’ve been a member of the folklore dance ensemble “Thea Maass” at TU Dresden. The jumping and spinning nicely matches to how I naturally move to music. We perform choreographed dances in costume, and there are also social dances for everyone. What’s important to me is that off-stage, it really doesn’t matter how it looks – as long as you’re having fun!

 

Source language of this interview: German & English